Cashew Chicken

Method

1. dice8 min
   chicken thigh into 2 cm cubes, bell pepper to the same size, scallion into lengths — uniform dice is not neatness, it is timing: mismatched pieces cannot all finish in the ninety seconds the wok gives you
2. marinate30 min
   refrigerated
   chicken + egg white + 1 tbsp cornstarch + shaoxing wine + baking soda + salt, worked until the meat feels slippery rather than wet. The cornstarch and egg white gel on contact with heat into a shell that traps juices; the pinch of baking soda raises surface pH so the proteins hold water instead of squeezing it out. More than a quarter teaspoon and the chicken turns soapy and rubbery
3. toast5 min
   dry pan, medium-low
   cashews, shaken constantly until straw-gold, then tip out onto a cold plate — they carry enough residual heat to scorch in the pan, and burnt cashew is bitter through the whole dish. Adding them raw at the end instead leaves them limp once the sauce hits
4. whisk2 min
   cold
   soy sauce + oyster sauce + sugar + rice vinegar + chicken stock + 1 tsp cornstarch = sauce, mixed until no white streaks remain. Build it now: once the wok is hot there is no time, and cornstarch stirred into hot liquid lumps instead of dissolving
5. sear4 min
   very high, wok smoking
   peanut oil + marinated chicken spread in a single layer, left undisturbed 90 seconds before the first turn. Crowd it and the pan temperature crashes below the setting point of the starch coat — the chicken weeps, boils in its own liquid, and comes out grey. Cook to just-opaque and pull it; it finishes in the sauce
6. saute3 min
   high
   same wok + garlic + ginger + scallion whites + bell pepper, tossed hard for 30 seconds of aromatics then 2 minutes of pepper — the pepper should still snap. Garlic goes in after the oil has cooled a beat off smoking or it turns acrid in seconds
7. mix2 min
   high, then off heat
   + chicken + sauce (re-stirred, since the cornstarch settles) + scallion greens, tossing until the sauce turns glossy and clings — that gloss is the starch gelatinising, and it happens all at once. Off the heat, then + toasted cashews + sesame oil, so both stay aromatic rather than cooked flat